מתוך medicontext.co.il
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Older adults who regularly participant in cognitively stimulating activities appear to have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease compared with their peers who do not regularly engage such activities, researchers report in February 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"People who reported being more intellectually active had a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease over 4.5 years of observation," Dr. Robert S. Wilson, from the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Chicago, told Reuters Health. These individuals also had a reduced rate of cognitive decline during that period, he added.
Dr. Wilson and colleagues evaluated data for 724 Catholic nuns, priests, and brothers, who were 65 years of age or older. At baseline, none of the participants had dementia.
The researchers had the subjects rate the frequency with which they participated in various cognitive activities. Activities included watching television, reading, and playing games, such as cards, checkers, crosswords or other puzzles, and visiting museums.
A composite score of these activities was used to evaluate the frequency of intellectual activity. Scores in this population ranged from 1.57 to 4.71, on a 5-point scale. Higher score expressed an increased frequency of intellectual activity, the researchers explain.
After a mean of 3.0 years, 111 subjects developed Alzheimer's disease. The results of a proportional hazards model of the data, which was adjusted for age, sex, and educational level, revealed that for every 1-point increase in cognitive activity score, the risk of Alzheimer's was reduced by 33% (hazard ratio 0.67).
Analysis that took into account the presence of the apolipoprotein E allele, and other medical conditions, did not change the relationship between cognitive activity and the risk for developing Alzheimer's disease, the researchers comment.
"In random-effects models that controlled for age, sex, education, and baseline level of cognitive function, a 1-point increase in cognitive activity was associated with reduced decline in global cognition (by 47%), working memory (by 60%), and perceptual speed (by 30%)", Dr. Wilson's group writes.
"This finding supports the brain reserve hypothesis, which suggests that people who are more intellectually active may develop interconnections among neurons that support that activity, making those neural networks less vulnerable to pathologies like Alzheimer's disease," Dr. Wilson said.
He added that, "we expect to see the same results in the general population."
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